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Saturday, 4 February 2017

Photo: India Central Bureau of Investigation arrests MD of ponzi firm who has been hiding in Nigeria for 3 years

Tightening its screw on the multi-crore ponzi scam, the Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI), India's premier law enforcement agency for the
investigation of corruption cases, on Friday, February 3, arrested Mir
Sahiruddin, managing director of Green Ray International Limited (GRIL)
who was on the run for nearly three years.A native of Balasore district, Sahiruddin was hiding
with his family in Nigeria. He had entered India on Bangladesh passport
by impersonating him as Ahmed Hussain and was arrested from Kolkata.

Confirming his arrest, a CBI official from New Delhi said Sahiruddin of
Sasanbad village under Jaleswar police limits had returned from Nigeria a
few days back.

"Earlier a look out circular was issued against him and other directors
of the company. He will be brought to Bhubaneswar on Saturday," he said.

GRIL is accused of duping nearly Rs 2,000 crore from poor and
unsuspecting investors of Odisha and 13 other states on the pretext of
providing them astronomical returns in a short span of time.
On September 28, 2015, CBI sleuths had raided different branch offices of the ponzi firm.

The raids were conducted at 13 places in Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur,
Keonjhar, Khurda and Nayagarh districts. Corporate office and houses of
the company officials at Jaleswar and relative’s house at Tarpur in
Jajpur were also raided simultaneously.

The national probing agency had seized documents related to the
chit-fund scam and schemes floated by the company, which has foreign
connections and alleged links with anti-national forces.

Sources said, Bhubaneswar CBI SP Rajiv Ranjan had been tracking
Sahiruddin since long. Altogether 13 cases were registered against the
company authorities under various sections of IPC and Prize Chits and
Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act 1978 in Balasore, Mayurbhanj,
Ganjam, Sonepur and Khurda districts in 2013. Chhattisgarh police also
had registered five cases and arrested one director Ayub Saha and one
branch manager. Sources said GRIL which dealt in gold and silver trading
possessed nearly 20.68 acres of land in Balasore district that had been
confiscated by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch.

The company had a deposit of Rs 57,41,541 in 46 accounts, which was
frozen while the EOW had seized Rs 9,55,745 in cash, 246 gram gold coins
worth Rs 4,15,751 and 9.5 kg silver coins worth Rs 6,66,200.

Apart from the 41 branches in the State, GRIL had 67 more branches in
Maharashtra, Goa, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra
Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh and Gujarat besides its international branch in Bar Dubai.
Earlier, Sahiruddin was arrested by State Security Service (SSS), the
primary domestic intelligence agency of Nigeria on July 15, 2015 on the
grounds of suspected money laundering. Later, he managed to obtain bail.

The accused was hiding at Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, with family to
hoodwink the CBI. He was also allegedly involved in gold trading.
Investigations revealed that his company had transferred crores of
rupees from India to Dubai and then Nigeria through hawala brokers.